


Promises

by Crunchysunrises



Category: Naruto
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Heartbreak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-01
Updated: 2013-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-27 20:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/665886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crunchysunrises/pseuds/Crunchysunrises
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ino does not bluster or make promises lightly. Sakura believes her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises

**Author's Note:**

> **Content Notes:** None  
>  **Disclaimer:** I have no rights to or within the Naruto franchises, copyrights, characters or trademarks. This is for fun, not profit.  
>  **Additional Notes:** Written for the KakaSaku Community on Dreamwidth's Last Fan Standing Challenge. This fic also answers the "Loyalty" square on my Dark Fantasy Bingo Card and the "explosion" square on my Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card.

Kakashi leaves Sakura at the altar in front of gods and men and everyone whose opinion had ever mattered to her. He literally stops the ceremony, looks her dead in the eye, and says, "I'm sorry. I should've stopped this sooner but you're young and beautiful and everything that I've ever wanted."

"And you're everything that I'll ever want!" Sakura cries.

She would like to be fierce but her voice wobbles and her eyes are already aching. Panic is a raging beast, trapped within the confines of her chest. She does not know what is happening or where this is coming from but she knows Kakashi. Once he decides something, no matter how stupid, he is not easily swayed from his course.

"Please, Kakashi..."

"I'm a weak man," Kakashi says and smiles a gentle, wistful smile at her. "And you deserve someone better. Someone young and brave who will make you happy. I'm so sorry."

Then, before Sakura can get a word in edgewise or grab his wrist, Kakashi disappears in a puff of smoke and a swirl of leaves.

The run from the temple to her apartment is both the shortest and longest distance of Sakura's life. She has never run so fast.

Sakura kicks her own front door down. She is halfway out of her wedding kimono before she is even halfway across the living room. Dressed in her underwear, Sakura throws herself into her bed, buries her face in a pillow, and gives in to her grief.

At some point, her mother comes to smooth Sakura's hair and kiss one of her wet cheeks. She murmurs platitudes about how the trials and tribulations of one's life are there to make that person stronger.

Sakura is already the strongest in the village.

She cries harder.

Two days later, Sakura is wearing clean pajamas, her face is clean, and her mother has quietly put away the remnants of Sakura's wedding finery. She is still in her bed, although at that particular moment Sakura is asleep and dreaming of running and searching for something lost to her.

Sakura is drawn up from the distressing dream by the hushed cadence of voices.

"Let me talk to her," murmurs Ino's voice.

"She's sleeping," Sakura's mama replies. "Finally."

"So I'll wait for her to wake up," Ino promises, her tone flippant but her meaning deadly earnest.

There is a brief pause.

"It can't hurt," Sakura's mother sighs. "And nothing else has helped."

Ino enters Sakura's bedroom on silent feet. The mattress barely dips beneath her weight as Ino crawls into bed with her, fitting her body along the back of Sakura's own. Ino's embrace is warm and strong and reassuring.

"Don't cry, Sakura," Ino murmurs, her voice barely more than a warm breath against the nape of Sakura's neck. "I'm going to kill him."

Ino does not bluster or make promises lightly. One way or another, Sakura has no doubt that Ino will do as she has promised.

Kakashi is going to die, horribly.


End file.
